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You put plenty of time, effort and creativity into your videos, so you’ll want to make sure you get credit where credit is due. Adding a watermark to a video lets the world know that you are the future blockbuster director behind the flick. Watermarks help protect you against plagiarism; and even if you find it hard to believe that someone would rip off your work, a well-designed logo adds a level of professionalism to your videos. You can use GIMP, a free software application, to create video watermarks with a variety of brush effects.

Creating the Watermark

1. Start GIMP and click “File" on the toolbar. Select “New." Type the preferred dimensions into the “Width” and “Height” fields to set the size of your watermark logo. Click “Advanced Images” and then click “Fill With.” Choose “Transparency” from the drop-down menu. Click "OK." A square with gray cross-hatching appears on the GIMP screen.

2. Click the “Text” tool from the toolbox and select your desired font, color and size. Use this tool to draw a text box inside your watermark. Type your name, company name, website name or other desired signature into the pop-up Text Editor box. Resize and move the text, if necessary, until you achieve the desired appearance.

3. Right-click the text box and select "Alpha to Selection" from the next menu. Click "Layer," then click "New Layer" to create a border around the text. Click "Select." Click “Grow." Enter “3” pixels in the dialog box.

4. In the Layer box, drag the new layer below the text layer. Select the “Bucket Fill” tool from the toolbox and specify your preferred border color. Click on the text with the Bucket Fill tool to fill in the border color. Right-click the top layer in the Layer box and select "Merge down."

5. Select the “Paintbrush” tool from the toolbox. Click on the “Brush” icon in the Paintbrush settings box. Choose the desired brush effect, whether it's a preset GIMP brush, a custom brush you’ve designed yourself or a custom brush you have downloaded.

6. Set the size of the brush effect using the “Scale” slider, and change any other settings – opacity, color, fadeout and so on – as desired.

7. Click on the watermark logo using the Brush tool to place the brush effect wherever desired to create the background for your video watermark.

8. Click "File" and select "Save As." Type a name for your watermark. Save the watermark as a PNG file by adding a ".png" extension to the file name. Click "Save."

Adding the Watermark to the Video

1. Launch your preferred video-editing program and open the video you want to watermark.

2. Locate and open your watermark logo in your video-editing program, following the instructions for that software. With some applications, such as Windows Movie Maker, you should first save the watermark in a shared folder within the program.

3. Add your watermark logo to the title or overlay track. This sets it as a transparent overlay over the top of the actual video clips. In some programs, such as Pinnacle Studio, you can drag and drop the logo directly onto the track. In other programs like iMovie, you must first select a command, such as "Add overlay to selected clips" or "Picture in Picture" from the program's Tools or Options menu. Consult the user manual for your video-editing software.

4. Click on the watermark in the overlay track to crop, rotate and position it as desired, following the procedure applicable to your editing software.

Things Needed

GIMP software

Video-editing software

Tips

Feel free to experiment with different techniques and go beyond the basic when creating your watermark logo – but remember that compact designs tend to look best on screen.

Put some thought into where to place your watermark. Ideally, it should not interfere with your audience's viewing experience, but it should also be difficult to crop out by someone wanting to rip off your video.